Hard Pill to Swallow: Another approach to Women’s History Month.

I am about to write something that could be deemed offensive, so I just want you to be prepared. If I am going to be honest, I think women’s history month is unnecessary. I say this because I feel like it is a mockery of women. Why?

The answer is simple: it is not flattering or fair to only celebrate the history of women one month out of the year.

I should begin by saying that I think months dedicated to things are silly and unnecessary. Month-long celebrations are great, but random calendar months assigned to seemingly arbitrary celebrations make no sense.

Did you know that March is also National Cheerleading Safety Month? How can there even be enough cheerleading safety to think about for a month? Why do we need to dedicate an entire month to cheerleader’s safety precautions?

But let me return to my main point. I believe women’s history month, while well intended, is a mockery of women’s accomplishments. To a casual observer, aka myself, women’s history months seems to be saying, “Women’s history gets to be celebrated one month out of the year, while men’s history gets to be celebrated the other eleven months”.

Now this just isn’t even fair. Don’t women make up half of society? If we were going to do it equitably, we would celebrate women’s history for six months, and men’s history the other six months. But why bother to do that at all? This is the moment in this article where I would like to present a very original idea.

What if, I know this might be strange, but what if we decided to stop sorting everyone into categories, and just had everybody under one large umbrella called “history.” This would allow us to remember women and men together, equally.

After all, it’s kind of hard to separate women’s and men’s history. It’s not like we live mutually exclusive lives. And it’s not like any woman has ever accomplished anything without a man’s help. And I know for a fact that no man has ever accomplished something without a woman’s help.  

I understand that the purpose of Women’s history month is to draw awareness and honor women’s accomplishments throughout history. Let me be the first to say that, throughout history, women’s achievements have been ignored. But doesn’t it feel more like an afterthought to give women the month of March to celebrate their history. It’s like, “Oh, your achievements have been ignored for so long? Here is a random gloomy month to celebrate them.” How is that showing women respect?

There is no men’s history month, and God willing there won’t be. People will say the reason for this is that there is no need for raising awareness of men’s history. This might be true. (It also might not be; I can think of countless men whose deeds will go forgotten.) But whether true or not, are we going to let men get away with celebrating their history 11 more times than women.

I say, NO! I say we should rise up and prevent this injustice. Let us no longer categorize and classify people. Let us stop giving groups discarded months in which to celebrate their history. Instead, I say we abolish arbitrary month-long observances once and for all, and ask that every human be treated as equals in history.